John Rutter, Catrin Finch and the mystery of the harp

28 November 2012, 10:36 | Updated: 28 November 2012, 15:56

Composer John Rutter is famous for his choral writing, but has been captivated by the harp from a young age. He and harpist Catrin Finch shared the unusual inspiration behind their collaboration album, Blessing.

Harp fans and choral music lovers will all find something to their tastes on the latest album from John Rutter and Catrin Finch, with its collection of traditional Welsh music, Catrin's own compositions, and arrangements of John's choral classics, like The Lord Bless You and Keep You. John Rutter, known for his choral music, explained the connection between his love life and his fascination with the harp in an in-depth interview with John Suchet.

He said: "I was just captivated by the sound of this extraordinary instrument - I suppose I was 10 or 11 at the time."

Catrin explained the challenges of playing such a mysterious instrument like the harp, with such a limited amount of repertoire. Luckily, the album contains new music composed especially for the harp, as well as Catrin's own music.

"We don't have a great repertoire at all," she said. "It's a strange thing, because the instrument itself is such an old one, it dates back so many hundreds of hundreds of years, yet it's only recently developed into a strong instrument."